“Teaching Music Theory to Young Children” 8 Music Teaching Strategies that you can use to inspire under 7’s to learn music theory
TM
Includes Four Sample Worksheets from The Junior Musicianship System
“Teaching Music Theory to Young Children”
8 Music Teaching Strategies that you can use to inspire under 7’s to learn music theory Dear friend, Congratulations on downloading this unique package of music teaching strategies and taking the first steps to making music learning fun for those very important people in our lives- our students. I really respect your decision to explore, evaluate and discover more about your teaching and to continue to grow as an educator. Both my husband and I are very fortunate to have had the opportunities to work with thousands of special teachers, students and parents throughout our career. These experiences have taught me the techniques that highly effective music teachers use to create the most extraordinary music teaching learning experiences. Whether you are a classroom, small group or private studio music teacher, you are bound to find some strategies here that will help you motivate and inspire children to bring out the best they can be and to enhance the special talents that you already possess as a specialist in this area. In this document you will find 8 important strategies you can act on immediately to incorporate in your classroom or studio to help with making music theory fun and inspiring to our children. You can play these any time and anywhere at your own convenience. I encourage you to try at least one or two of the strategies each time you listen to the audio to test it before you finish the course. For those who are not teachers, but who want to inspire the children in their lives to enjoy music, these strategies are also very applicable and relevant and can be used in exactly the same ways as mentioned on the audios. You can print out this document for an easy reference to the strategies and to help you visualize the concepts as you incorporate them. No matter at what pace you approach this, try to incorporate the ideas into your daily teaching and focus on the connection and joy you receive from those children you teach. Hopefully these ideas will give you the inspiration and confidence to try things that you may not have thought of and that have worked in the most tried and tested situations around the world, so why wouldn't they work with your children? I know you will enjoy this program- the teaching experiences I have had in classrooms and studios while working along with my husband Kevin, have been some of the most rewarding and special memories throughout my life. This program will help you create more possibilities and experiences for you in your teaching and for your students in their learning. Please accept this invitation to join me on this special journey in joining together to inspire children to be their best through music and to make the process fun. The rewards can be immediate and experiencing total fulfillment in your music teaching career can change your life. Here's to your success in making music lessons fun!
Janice Tuck
Strategy 1 “Don't Call It the T-Word” Just ask yourself a question. If music is our most exciting, fun and easy subject that we all have passion for ourselves, why do we call a boring name like "music theory"? Isn’t it just possible that the words “Music Theory” can put them off right from the beginning? Test this yourself. Tell your children that you are going to play some music games in one session and see the response. Then tell them in another session you are about to do some music theory and gauge the difference. Let that answer speak for itself! Personally I’ve always preferred the term “Musicianship”, which is why we name our theory programs this way, as it gives an impression that by working on the written elements we are developing the “whole musician” in our student, and not just “teaching an instrument”. Of course it is up to you whether you use this term or not, and many do successfully make the term “theory” sound fun! Here are some other names that you could use for Music Theory when talking about it with young children:
“Music Game Time” “Writing Time” “Note Drawing Time” “Writing Game Time” “Pencil Time” “Music Challenge Games” “Fun Sheet Time”
Strategy 2 “Make it a game and Not a Job!” Handing out worksheets to young children and telling them to fill in the gaps, just doesn't happen with young children. They need to progress onto that activity in steps to achieve success in that area and making the process into a game instead of a job can really help the whole process. Here are some steps to help to make doing worksheets easy and fun for young children: Step1: Model the content - place notes, draw and play games with the children rather than telling them how to do it. Step 2: Always start with known music concepts and gradually move into the unknown Step 3: Encourage Retention through drawing Step 4: Always reinforce the positives
Strategy 3 “Variety is Key” While our young students have a need to feel certain that they are going to have a fun, fulfilling time and that they will be valued and safe in their music lessons, they also have a simultaneous need for surprise and variety. As the teacher, it is important to constantly mix up the content, but simultaneously keep the surprises coming- if you can do this on an ongoing basis while simultaneously keeping a general routine in your music classes, you will always be able to develop great rapport with your children and parents. Children will be literally falling over themselves to get to your next classes, just to see what's in store and parents will be happy that their children enjoy coming to music.
Mix up when you do theory activities – Do it sometimes at the beginning, sometimes in the middle and sometimes at the end of the lesson. Sometimes offer it for homework between lessons, and sometimes mix it with games and other activities.
Strategy 4 “Relate Relate Relate!” Even when you're curriculum timeline tells you that you are scheduled for a "music theory" session today- there's no reason why you can't relate some practical components back to their writing listening or games. Taking the concepts apart and showing children why they need to know it can really heighten their understanding and relating a writing activity to a practical activity can really help young children to retain information much more effectively. It just ties all the pieces together over time until the whole thing eventually ties it all together. Here are some ideas: Start with a problem they are having with a concept in a piece (a rhythm in this example) 1) listen to the excerpt played correctly 2) take the rhythm apart and do some clapping games (echo clapping etc) to reinforce that rhythm along with similar ones 3) Write down the rhythm on the whiteboard 4) Play a game around those note types 5) Choose a worksheet based around those note types 6) Take them back to the piece they are having the problem with and relate it back
For Game ideas you can check out solutions from the Fun Music Company at www.printablemusicgames.com
Strategy 5 “Team Building Incentives” This is all about continually coming up with new ideas to keep your classes and groups inspired. It doesn't matter how well behaved or enthused young children are initially, after a while, even when successfully incorporating some of these strategies together, there will still come to a time where the children's energy level and enthusiasm will drop. The novelty of learning something new wears off and they start to loose that "spark" that they had when music was all a new adventure- especially as our expectations become higher of them. Here are a few Team Building Exercises to get you started: Happy, Sad Whiteboard In one area of a whiteboard, draw a simple happy face and a sad face as well. Every time a group or class achieves in the lesson, place a tick in the happy face column, every time the class disrupts place a tick in the sad face column. if there are more happy ticks than sad ticks at the end of a session, play a favorite game or other activity to finish off. "Happy Harry" Make a "spinner" style chart with some sad colors such as brown, purple, black and happy colors such as red, orange yellow place on it. Teacher starts the meter in the middle of the chart and the teacher moves the meter to the happiest position by working together well and achieving highly in the lesson. If the class gets to the happiest position, they celebrate with a game of the week or other favorite activity.
Symbol Collection Find or make a set of musical symbols and keep a collection in the classroom. Select children to place a symbol in a cup or box as they achieve in the lesson. if a member of the class disrupts or slows the flow of the lesson, take get a child (usually the one doing the behavior or disruption) to take a symbol out of the cup or box. If all symbols are in the box or cup by the end the class gets to play a game. You could also make a treasure box or use other items for this idea too.
Strategy 6 “Listening Cues” Here are two of my own ideas, different to the usual rhythm clapping and using whistle strategies you can use to help young children to focus on what they need to do in their lessons, without having to use words.
Play a piece of Music I always used a listening cue for my young students to draw along with, because I found that sometimes the whole worksheet drawing thing could really take too long. When I put some music on in the background, the children almost draw along with it and I also use the same piece of music to demonstrate the worksheet to the students as well. My favorite drawing listening cue is "Flight Of the Bumblebee" by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, but "Dance Of The Mosquito" by Antatole Liadov also worked well for me as well. Use a bell If you want an activity to finish quickly, a bell can be a great cue to use. I always found this cue particularly useful when I used keyboards in a lesson, but there is no reason why it couldn't be used for other activities as well. If I wanted an entire class to play together, I would show them how to switch the keyboards on when I rang the bell and then rang the bell again to switch off.
Strategy 7 “Flashcard Surprises” We all know that flashcards enhance the learning and speed that bite sized pieces of information are learned. The trick is to make using them applicable to young children and to music lessons. There are many flashcard sets that you can buy or print, but making them relevant to young children can be tricky. Here are three Flashcard Ideas that I Have used with young children over the years and you can implement these immediately even with your youngest students.
1. Have a Flash Card Treasure Hunt place some flashcards around the room and send your children on a search for the appropriate cards. 2. Flashcard Match Game Place flashcards approximately 8-10 to start with laying face down on the floor. Each child takes a turn to match the flashcards. When a pair is matched, the child or teacher collects them. 3. Hi & Low Flashcard Game Place a single treble clef on one side of the room, a bass clef on the opposite side and a middle C in the middle of the room. Play some high notes on the piano and children run to the treble clef and children run to the symbol. Play low notes and children run to the bass symbol. Play middle C and children run to the middle.
Strategy 8 Use the Right Tools Even if you have limited budget to work with and you don't have many instruments for your classes, you can still add some inexpensive materials to help keep your lessons active.
Useful Things to help make music learning fun: Magnetic whiteboard Mount on the wall, and add thin black tape to make stave lines. Use coloured round magnets (easily available from stationary stores) to add music notes Small magnet boards Sometimes available from music stores, an individual magnet board for every student will be loads of fun! Percussion Instruments Simple instruments like Claves, Tambourines, Castanets and Maracas can be quite inexpensive and loads of fun for young children to improve their rhythm. Music Players Utilize ipods and other new technologies that you already have and put familiar recordings of classical and other music that you already own to play along with and listen to An Inexhaustible supply of music worksheets – tailored to your needs See below for information about the Fun Music Company “Junior Musicianship Course” which can save you many hours of preparation time in teaching theory to young children
Ok so I know what you are thinking: “This is all very well, but how on earth am I going to have time to implement all this in my music lessons, let alone prepare for it?” Am I right? Well at the Fun Music Company we are here to help you. We develop products specifically to meet teachers needs so we have a product to show you today which: Is developed for one purpose only : to help children from the ages of 3 years to 7 years learn music theory concepts
Our Junior Musicianship course features over 140 worksheets which have been designed by our team of music educators to teach concepts such as reading pitch, basic note types and simple musical symbols.
We’ve also included a sample of five of the worksheets included in the Junior Musicianship course with this free download, so print them out and try them out with your students to see how much they will help you engage them in your music lessons. We also have a unique concept with this product: YOU get to be involved in the development process. Yes, that’s right. We don’t feel that we are necessarily qualified to develop the right resources for YOUR music lessons, as everyone has different needs. Therefore we’ve come up with a way to offer you what you need. The product (as of its launch in December 2008) has 140 worksheets, based around simple concepts such as pitch reading, drawing simple musical symbols and rhythmic concepts. What we do is offer unlimited change requests and revisions – so at any time you don’t have the worksheet that you need (let’s say you are teaching notes that aren’t covered) all you have to do is submit a change request and we’ll do our best to come up with what you are looking for and upload it for everyone to have access to. We only ask that you keep it to the purpose of this product – for children aged from 3-7 years (no four part harmony here I’m afraid!) This way our resource will eventually be the ultimate resource for teaching music theory to young children – developed in conjunction with hundreds (or thousands!) of music teachers worldwide The cost for this product is an annual license fee of $49.90 per year. It doesn’t automatically recur, so you purchase it this year, and if you like it and want to continue having access to it online you simply purchase it again in a year’s time. So visit music www.funmusicco.com/juniortheory to take the next step and get started with the Junior Music Theory Worksheets
Janice Tuck
The Junior Musicianship System 140+ worksheets for music theory instruction for young children
This sample contains four worksheets – mixed up from within the range of worksheets included in the system P52 – Note Drawing In this worksheet children trace notes on the grand staff, and they can also name them if you wish. The Junior Musicianship system contains over 85 worksheets just on pitch reading, moving through all the treble clef notes and bass clef notes separately, and a few grand staff ones like this one. P56 – Keyboard Connections In this worksheet children connect notes from the manuscript to the keyboard at the bottom, and can also add names to the notes if you wish.
R05A/R05E – Drawing Rests In this worksheet children learn how to draw a crotchet or quarter note rest. Throughout the Junior Musicianship System whenever there is any rhythmic terminology used we have provided both the American (Quarter Note, Half Note etc) and the European (crotchet, minim etc) versions. S15 – Symbols This is just one of the worksheets developing knowledge of the musical symbols that junior musicians encounter in their music.
The Junior Musicianship system is designed to print in landscape mode on either A4 or Letter sized paper. We have consistently found that landscape orientation gives better results with young children. Frequently Asked Questions about the “Junior Musicianship System”
What if this doesn’t contain the worksheets I need? The Junior Musicianship system has a unique bonus associated with it: Unlimited revisions and changes. If you don’t find the worksheet you are looking for in the system, then all you need to do is let us know and we’ll add a variation or create a brand new one that helps you. This way we add value to the product for everyone Do I have to access this online? Online access allows us to provide a continually evolving product – so that as worksheets are added you’ll be able to get access to the updated ones as well as the ones that are in it when you purchase it. We may provide a CDROM option in the future. How much does it cost? The price is $49.90 for the right to print it out as many times as you want for one year How long does my membership last? Like all products from the Fun Music Company, this membership gives you lifetime access to the downloads. Can I get customer Support? You can contact us at any time through our dedicated help centre: www.funmusiccompanyhelpdesk.com
To get started with the Junior Musicianship System go to: http://www.funmusicco.com/junior-music-worksheets
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Free Sample
Note Drawing
Junior Musicianship Course sample P52 ©2008 The Fun Music Company Get the full Junior Musicianship System at www.funmusicco.com/juniormusicianship
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Free Sample
Keyboard Connections
Junior Musicianship Course Sample P56 ©2008 The Fun Music Company Get the full Junior Musicianship System at www.funmusicco.com/juniormusicianship
Quarter Note Rests Free Sample
Trace & Draw:
Junior Musicianship Course Sample R05A ©2008 The Fun Music Company Get the full Junior Musicianship System at www.funmusicco.com/juniormusicianship
Crotchet Rests Free Sample
Trace & Draw:
Junior Musicianship Course R05E ©2008 The Fun Music Company Get the full Junior Musicianship System at www.funmusicco.com/juniormusicianship
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Free Sample
Note Drawing
Junior Musicianship Course sample P52 ©2008 The Fun Music Company Get the full Junior Musicianship System at www.funmusicco.com/juniormusicianship
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Free Sample
Keyboard Connections
Junior Musicianship Course Sample P56 ©2008 The Fun Music Company Get the full Junior Musicianship System at www.funmusicco.com/juniormusicianship
Quarter Note Rests Free Sample
Trace & Draw:
Junior Musicianship Course Sample R05A ©2008 The Fun Music Company Get the full Junior Musicianship System at www.funmusicco.com/juniormusicianship
Crotchet Rests Free Sample
Trace & Draw:
Junior Musicianship Course R05E ©2008 The Fun Music Company Get the full Junior Musicianship System at www.funmusicco.com/juniormusicianship
Symbols & Terms Match:
Free Sample
Common Time
c
Allegro
$
Gradually Becoming Louder
lively, Fast
Segno
Fermata (Pause)
Gradually Becoming Softer
Junior Musicianship Course Sample S15 ©2008 The Fun Music Company Get the full Junior Musicianship System at www.funmusicco.com/juniormusicianship
